Make It Stop Hurting
by JoChryedLover
Summary: What would Jack have done if Gwen hadn't been able to cope after 'Exit Wounds? AU, Gwack.


**Just a little something I came up with after 'Exit Wounds'.**

**What if Gwen hadn't have been able to find the strength to carry on? What would Jack have done then?**

**xoxoxo**

* * *

><p><em>(Jack was sitting in his office, frowning as he went over some paperwork. He wasn't good at this sort of stuff. That was Gwen's...but, no. He couldnâ€™'t think like that. She was gone. She wasn't coming back. There was nothing he could do about it. He had lost her forever. Sighing, he uncorked a bottle of Jack Daniels and downed some of it, like he had been doing ever since she...Glancing over his desk, Jack's eyes landed on a photograph of the two of them together. It had been taken at her wedding. Someone had taken it while they had been dancing. They were gazing into one another's eyes, as though they were the happy couple, not Gwen and Rhys. He remembered their conversation)<em>

Will you miss me?  
>Always.<p>

_(And he always would. He would never get over what had happened. How she had announced that she was leaving, and had left the hub without looking back, no goodbye. That was the last time he had saw her. It had been three weeks since she had left. And the Torchwood team was down to two members. Ianto had tried to help; tried to coax Jack into finding replacements for Tosh, Owen and now Gwen. But, no matter how hard he tried, Jack couldn't bring himself to do it. Taking another swig of JD, he looked up, thinking he had heard something in the hub. Looking around from his office, he saw nothing. Another false alarm.)_

Jack: Why did you have to leave me, Gwen? Didn't you know what it would do to me? How it would affect me? How much it would hurt me? Didn't you know that it would kill me, Gwen? What did I do that made you hate me so much? I always thought I couldn't die, but now, I'm not so sure. I'm dying, Gwen! You're killing me!

_(Tears in his eyes, Jack took another swig. He remembered the conversation he and Gwen had had when they had lost Owen and Tosh)_

Now we carry on.  
>I don't think I can, not after this.<br>You can. We all can.

_(Jack's tears were coming hard and fast now, as he was sat at his desk. Gwen had left him, so why hadn't the world ended? Why was the world carrying on, like nothing had happened, while he sat there, alone, hurting, with no Gwen to make it stop hurting? He wasn't mad at her. He was mad at himself, for not seeing how she had needed him_.)

Jack: Did you want me to be there for you, Gwen? Wasn't I there enough? What more did you want? What can I do to make you come back to me? Make it stop hurting, Gwen. Please! I beg you!

_(From the shadows, she spoke out to him.)_

Gwen: I'm here, Jack.

_(Jack looked up as she stepped out from behind his office door. There she was. His angel. She had come back to him; come back to make it stop hurting.)_

Jack: Gwen?

_(She smiled as he stood up and strode forwards towards her.)_

Gwen: I'm sorry I left without a word, Jack. I just...I had to get my head together.

_(Jack was barely inches from her now. He was so close, he could feel her breath on his face, and he knew that she was real.)_

Jack: You...You came back?

Gwen: _(Nodding) _I came back. For you, Jack.

Jack: Hold me, Gwen. Make it stop hurting.

_(Smiling, she held out her arms and he collapsed into her, holding her close to him, as though scared to let her go. He breathed in her scent as she stroked her arm gently up his back.)_

Jack: _(Sobbing into her._) Thank you, Gwen! You came back to me!

Gwen: I was always going to come back to you, Jack.

Jack: It killed me, losing you, Gwen. I never want you to go again. Stay with me, Gwen. Forever. Never leave my side again.

Gwen: (_Smiling._) I'm not going anywhere.

_(Jack looked up from her shoulder and started placing small kisses on her hands. That was when he noticed.)_

Jack: Gwen, where's your wedding ring?

Gwen: I told you I had to clear my head, Jack. And that's what I did. That's when I realised that I didn't love Rhys anymore. _She looked into his eyes._ I love _you,_ Jack. You. And I'm sorry I left...

_(Gwen never got to finish her sentence. Jack's lips were on hers faster than she could breathe. He was kissing her hungrily; greedily, as though he had never kissed anyone before; as though he had just been reunited with a lover with whom he had been separated for a lifetime. And in that moment, it didn't matter to him that she had almost killed him by leaving him. All that mattered was that she had come back to him. She had made it stop hurting.)_


End file.
